Parents and students in Middletown are running out of time and options as the board wrestles with a $10 million budget deficit and considers drastic options, from closing multiple schools to hiking property taxes or mass layoffs.

Now, parents are mobilizing to push back against the proposals, arguing they've been left out of the process from the start.

Senior correspondent Brenda Flanagan was at last night's board meeting where parents pleaded with the board to save their schools.

I urge you to find a solution that unites our town, not tear it apart.

Anxious Middletown residents confronting a school budget crisis pleaded with the local board of education not to close any of their local schools in order to fill a projected $10 million funding gap.

Kids, teachers and parents rallied to find alternatives by a looming April 30th budget deadline.

You've awoken a sleeping giant that's now paying attention to what's really happening in our town right?

And this.

This is a town that we love.

And for many of us, we chose to live in because of the various schools you want to close.

I'm.

I am scared that next year at form, my class will be a lot bigger.

Please keep the schools open to keep my class smaller.

The hearing proceeded calmly compared to last week's anger fueled board meeting where fuming overflow crowds got locked out.

School parents felt blindsided by a last minute menu of drastic options close to elementary schools Leonardo and Naver sink, plus Bayshore Middle School.

Lay off teachers or hike property taxes by 10%.

The superintendent last night asked forgiveness for causing an uproar.

I apologize, but please know that no decision we ever make is taken lightly.

And myself and my administrative team.

We really do try and act in the best interests of every single student in the district.

Out here to see our schools by not being transparent, you've created this monster.

It's turning out other parents that are really upset because she didn't involve us in the process.

That's what we want.

We want to be involved in the process, and we don't want April 30th hanging over our heads.

Middletown School parents have quickly mobilized, forming a Save Our Schools group with its own website, blue shirts printed with logos, and a Change.org petition.

They face a structural budget deficit, caused in part by rising costs and declining enrollment, but just a small bump in state aid.

Angry teachers refused to agree to a wage freeze, even as some face losing their jobs if schools closed.

There is no better example of this than Bayshore Middle School.

But due to the past mismanagement of funding, it means that we're going to become your sacrificial lambs.

I ask that you seriously consider working with us to find the last Band-Aid that we need to keep these schools open, and then immediately reopen a proper strategic plan that involves the community voices.

Residents on fixed incomes, meanwhile, took to the podium to argue they can't afford a 10% tax hike.

I did my part.

It's getting to the point where I can't live here anymore.

I got friends of South Carolina.

I don't want to hurt the children, but we have to understand there's a lot of retired people in this town, too, that have been here for years, and I want to stay here.

Middletown's already closed one school in 2020.

Many speakers urged the board to avoid repeating such a drastic option while they seek solutions.

I'm just begging you to please just let us know when the option to close any school is off the table.

We would just feel like we could breathe even if you don't know the answer.

I'd love for all the schools to stay open.

Realistically, the middle school can't shut down, right?

If we have to live, if we have to lose an elementary school, nobody wants it.

But that's going to be a conversation.

One potential answer.

A Hail Mary pass could come from a special one short infusion of state aid.

Local lawmakers met with the Murphy administration this week and asked for $10 million.

They're awaiting an answer.

So I would like that $10 million.

But right now, what we're really trying to push for, which realistically, is another two.

But I don't know if that's going to really save today and save from keeping these schools open and keeping these jobs in place.

Republican Victoria Flynn says Jersey's whole school funding framework needs reform as other districts confront the same dilemma.

In Middletown, the public will get three more hearings before the board's final budget vote.

I'm Brenda Flanagan, NJ spotlight News.